Drilling contractor KCA Deutag has forged a strategic alliance with the Robert Gordon University (RGU) to take simulator-based drilling and rig training to a new level.
The ambition is to create a leading global centre which will offer advanced competency training for drilling personnel, including well control, in Europe’s energy capital. The centre will also offer innovative resources for postgraduate training and research.
KCA Deutag is to relocate its innovative DART (Drilling and Advanced Rig Training) simulator from the company’s headquarters to a new, bespoke complex at RGU’s Garthdee campus in Aberdeen.
It will be installed within the university’s new Energy Centre, which will also relocate to the rapidly-expanding campus, and is expected to open in 2013.
RGU and KCA Deutag already have a well-established, successful working relationship, but the new agreement takes it to a higher level.
Phil Hassard, KCA Deutag’s DART manager, said: “At a time when the recent tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico has focused all of our minds on the importance of correct training and procedure, this alliance with Robert Gordon University acknowledges that the DART drilling simulator is an industry-leading means of training oil and gas personnel. It allows bespoke training to be conducted for high-cost and critical operations in a safe and controlled environment.”
Colleague and UK country manager, Martin Ellins, told Energy that the alliance was about “raising the game”, and added that, besides the training and postgraduate resources it would offer, the Garthdee facility would help facilitate commercial research & development of downhole tools and related systems.
On the critical issue of well control, Mr Ellins said: “Post-Macondo, the whole industry is looking at well control competency.
“DART is ideal for this as getting real well control experience is rare.”
KCA Deutag has already identified an opportunity for the simulator to help ensure that people working with blow-out prevention (BOP) equipment have a high level of formal training, with written and practical assessments to verify competency.
Duncan Stephen, who runs the Energy Centre, said: “One of the main outcomes of this alliance will be exciting new collaborations, bringing the best of industry and academia together in new industry-facing graduate development programmes, enhancing Aberdeen’s reputation as a centre of drilling and well engineering excellence.
“Significant commercial and research activities will be forthcoming.”
Stephen added that he could see a whole raft of new training programmes growing out of the strengthened relationship between the two organisations.
Under the terms of the alliance, RGU will use the facility for postgraduate programmes, while KCA Deutag will continue to provide internal training courses to employees and training to external clients.
They will work together to develop tailored courses to suit specific oil field drilling industry requirements with an emphasis on producing graduates with exceptional training experience.
Expectation is that the company will also benefit by being able to tap the university’s network of existing relationships with national oil companies, which are seen as an increasingly important market for the western oil & gas supply chain.
The alliance is seen as building on the already strong relationship with RGU.
Indeed, KCA Deutag is hosting nine third-year undergraduate students on placement for the current academic year.
Also, its fast-track graduate recruits are put through a specially designed RGU postgraduate programme.
KCA Deutag already welcomes regular visits to DART from delegates of national oil companies in line with the university’s “Univation” programme, but relocation of the facility will allow this to develop significantly.
KCA Deutag’s DART facility in Aberdeen already provides a full-scale reproduction of an offshore platform or land rig drill floor, complete with touch screen consoles for both driller and assistant driller. The new facility will further enhance this.
Currently, 3D graphics of a drill floor and automated or remotely-controlled equipment are projected onto a 18.5m-long (60ft) cinema screen at the front of the drilling control room cabin.
As the driller operates the rig floor equipment, the simulation depicts realistic and dynamic graphics and sounds to simulate what the driller would see and hear on the rig.
Moreover, DART can be programmed to replicate client-specific drillfloor requirements.
DART has been operational for a decade, and is considered a key market differentiator by KCA Deutag, especially in emerging markets such as the strategically important Caspian.
Aside from Aberdeen, the company currently has DART facilities in continental Russia, Russia – Sakhalin, Azerbaijan, Libya and Dubai.
With its computer-generated 3D graphics, real-time simulation and sound effects, DART has become an acknowledged, industry-leading facility for accelerating hands-on learning for both new mechanised rig training, and subsequent drilling optimisation workshops.
These facilities provide the capability to deliver both bespoke technical training and to provide core training to national crews working on mechanised rigs. DART uses software that allows downhole conditions to be effectively integrated and simulated, so that the drilling of wells can be practised by operators and rig crew personnel in a safe environment, using data collected during the drilling of real wells.
Recommended for you
